After the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified former president Donald Trump from running for office earlier this month, the US state of Maine became the second state to do the same on Thursday, 28 December.
The Maine decision was taken by a state official who removed Trump's name as a presidential candidate via the 14th Amendment.
Trump’s name has been removed from the state’s 2024 ballot, citing the 14th Amendment’s s "insurrectionist ban," reported CNN.
"I do not reach this conclusion lightly," Bellows wrote. "Democracy is sacred ... I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection."
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, issued the decision on Thursday, 28 December.
It is reported that Trump’s legal team might contest this decision in the state court. States such as Michigan and Minnesota had rejected the move before Colorado.
Colorado's Supreme Court ruled that Trump cannot run for president next year from the state due to a constitutional insurrection clause and ruled 4-3 that Mr Trump was not an eligible candidate because he had engaged in an insurrection over the US Capitol riot nearly three years ago.
The court also held that Trump was ineligible to serve on the state's presidential ballot again as he was engaged in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol building. However, the court has given Trump time to appeal the decision.
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